A family has gone to the High Court to challenge the Minister for Education's refusal to allow a young child with "complex educational needs" to attend school during the summer holidays.
The action has been taken on behalf of a six-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons. He has Down Syndrome, along with other educational and social needs.
The child has been attending a mainstream school.
In order to ensure that he does not regress over the long summer holidays, his family tried to enroll him in a special scheme operated by the Minister for Education known as the July Provision Scheme.
Under this scheme, children with special educational needs receive extra tuition during the month of July, which is delivered either at their homes or at school.
The boy's family applied for his inclusion in the 2018 July Provision Scheme.
That application was refused on the grounds that the boy did not have Autism and did not also fall into the category of having what is known as a severe or profound general learning disability.
Only children with those diagnoses are eligible for the scheme.
The family brought a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission claiming that their child was unlawfully discriminated against.
A WRC hearing remains pending and is unlikely to go ahead before this year's school holidays.
The family applied again under this year's July Provision scheme, but were told again that their child did not qualify.
The High Court heard that the family believed that this decision was irrational, unreasonable and in breach of the boy's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
They also claim the refusal, given the boy's needs and their fears that he may regress and come September have to relearn skills he had been taught in the previous academic year, is contrary to the 1998 Education Act.
The family are seeking an order from the court to quash the Minister's decision.
Mr Justice Seamus Noonan gave them permission to bring the action.
Noting the urgency of the matter, he adjourned the case until next week.
